TUI AG (LSE:TUI) said it has a “solid” pipeline of bookings for this summer, close to levels seen in pre-pandemic 2019 - but recent air travel chaos kept it in the red in the third quarter.
The travel group posted an underlying loss (EBIT) of €27mln for the three months to 30 June 2022, after it forked out €75mln to deal with the travel chaos caused by flight cancellations.
Excluding costs related to flight disruptions, underlying EBIT was positive at €48mln.
The company reiterated its forecast for a return to “significant positive underlying EBIT” for its 2022 financial year.
Summer bookings stood at 11.5mln, a rise of 3.9mln bookings since the company reported its interim results in May and equivalent to 90% of summer 2019 levels.
The UK remains the group’s most advanced market in terms of bookings with cumulative volumes rising 5%, well ahead of summer 2019, the company said.
TUI said it increased staff numbers to help ease the operational problems in the aviation industry caused by labour shortages and a ramp-up of operations post-Covid.
Flight disruptions are still at elevated levels and it is too early to estimate the impact for the fourth quarter, the company said, but predicted that disruptions will normalise for future seasons.
Commenting on winter 2022/23 bookings, which are still at an early stage, it said only the UK market is booked as usual at this point of time.
UK volumes are up 16% compared to the same stage of winter 2018/19 with the programme around 27% sold.
Shares fell 1.64% to 141.05p in early trade.